British Columbia trips up rusty Hawaii

It was a practice with a purpose, with the goal being to get ready for next week's conference opener at top-ranked UC Irvine.

The Hawaii men's volleyball team waded back into the waters of the Stan Sheriff Center last night for an exhibition match against British Columbia, the sixth-ranked team in Canada, a little tentative and rusty. What the Warriors considered their "third practice" of 2007 ended up being quicker than anticipated and certainly faster than they wanted.

It took just 100 minutes for the visiting Thunderbirds to show off their midseason form, winning the serve-and-pass game en route to sweeping the Warriors 30-23, 30-21, 30-25.

Andrew Bonner had 13 kills and Christoph Eichbaum 12 for UBC, which outblocked Hawaii 13-5.5 in front of a turnstile crowd of 1,465 (3,071 tickets).

"I know our blocking had a lot of holes in it," freshman middle Matt Rawson said. "It seemed that we weren't into it mentally. But as coach told us, it was our third practice and we'll work on a lot of things tomorrow."

"Practice" No. 5 is tomorrow when the teams meet again at 7 p.m. The Warriors are hoping for a repeat of two months ago, when they were swept by the Thunderbirds in round-robin play at the Thunderball Tournament in Vancouver and came back the next day to beat the hosts in five for the championship.

"Tonight was eerily similar to how we played up there the first time," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "But whether we can beat them will correlate to how we serve and pass. They certainly won that battle tonight, were more in-system than we were.

"But this was good for us, even though it wasn't pretty. We have to do it for real next week."

If Hawaii is to have a shot at beating UCI next week, the Warriors will have to sharpen up their passing in order to allow setter Brian Beckwith to run the quick offense. Last night's passing led to predictable sets, which led to UBC being able to camp out on UH's outside hitters.

UH senior middle Kyle Klinger was the most efficient (nine kills with no errors in 11 swings). But the Warriors' middle attack is predicated on passing, which was inconsistent at best.

"I thought we came out pretty focused," UBC coach Richard Schick said. "We know we can play better and we know Hawaii can play better.

"I'm happy with the way we passed the ball and we won the majority of the big points in the sense of the long rallies. We're used to playing to 25, so I'm happy we maintained the lead after we got to that point."

UBC pulled away early in Game 1, not committing a hitting error until Matt LeBourdais hit wide, bringing Hawaii to within 22-16.

Behind Hakala's tough serving, the Warriors closed to 27-21, but the T-Birds only had to trade sideouts to finish it off, ending it on Mike Proudfoot's fifth kill.

The Warriors fell behind early in Game 2 at 5-3 and never closed the gap.

UBC converted most of the off-plays, working well in transition and continued to dominate at the net.

The T-Birds outblocked the Warriors 4-1 in Game 2, with Bonner teaming up with Kyle Duperron for the final block to give UBC game point at 29-20.

Hawaii held off one game point when Bonner hit wide, but Dio Dante's serving error gave the T-Birds a 2-0 lead at the break.

Last October, the Warriors were able to regroup from the 0-2 deficit to beat the T-Birds in five and earn the tournament championship. But there would be no repeat, with UBC fending off every hint of a Hawaii rally.

The most serious came late in Game 3 when Schick was forced to call his first timeout when the Warriors closed to 21-18. But the T-Birds steadied out to complete the sweep.